New Delhi, Dec 17: Geopolitical uncertainties driven by the delay in the India-US trade deal have been the single-most important reasons for the rupee sliding against the US dollar, an SBI Research report said on Wednesday, adding that the rupee is likely to bounce back strongly in the second half of the next fiscal.

India’s trade data shows the remarkable resilience in navigating through prolonged uncertainty, more protectionism and labour supply shocks.

“While the geopolitical risk index has moderated since April 2025, the current average value of the index for April-October 2025 is much greater than its decadal average, which indicates how much pressure global uncertainties are exerting on INR,” State Bank of India’s (SBI) Group Chief Economic Advisor, Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, said.

Dr Ghosh further stated that consistent with their empirical analysis, “the rupee is currently in a depreciating regime and is likely to exit it”.

After breaching the psychologically important mark of 90 per US dollar, the rupee crossed the 91-level on Tuesday.

However, the rupee staged a sharp recovery on Wednesday, trading as strong as 90.25 during the day, as the cooling of crude prices also contributed to improved sentiment.

According to the SBI report, the data also indicates that the current fall is the quickest (in terms of number of days) of the rupee, scaled to 5 per USD. In less than a year, the rupee has slid from 85 to 90 per dollar.

The current slide appears to be primarily driven by FPI outflows, chiefly equities (after two years of robust inflows) and uncertainty regarding the US-India trade deal.

Since April 2, 2025, when the US announced sweeping tariff hikes across economies, the Indian rupee (INR) has depreciated by 5.7 per cent against USD (most amongst the major economies), notwithstanding sporadic phases of appreciation owing to optimism over the US-India trade deal.

“While INR is the most depreciated currency, it is not the most volatile. This clearly indicates that the 50 per cent tariff imposed on India is one of the major factors behind the current phase of rupee depreciation,” the SBI report noted.

Latur: Police have registered a case against the owner of a cafe premises in Maharashtra’s Latur district where a minor girl was allegedly raped earlier this month, officials said.

The incident occurred at the cafe on December 4.

The minor girl, who belongs to the Dalit community, was allegedly kidnapped and raped by an 18-year-old man at the establishment, they said.

Police traced the girl within hours of registering the complaint. The main accused and two persons who operated the cafe were subsequently arrested and booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act), an official said on Tuesday.

The police on Tuesday also booked the owner of the premises, where the cafe was being operated, under section 21 (punishment for failure to report or record a case) of the POCSO Act.

The cafe owner had illegally created a secluded compartment near the kitchen area by charging extra money, offering private seating arrangements. Despite being aware of this unauthorised setup and its misuse, the premises owner allegedly ignored it and allowed the cafe owner to continue with the arrangement, the official said.

He also failed to report the matter to the police or other authorities concerned and is accused of deliberately suppressing information, the official added.

New Delhi, Dec 17: The government is reviewing the adequacy of the Copyright Act, 1957, to address emerging legal challenges arising from the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Parliament was has been informed.

An eight-member committee has been constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on April 28 to study and analyse issues related to generative AI and its implications on copyright law, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Tuesday.

“Yes. An eight-member committee has been constituted by DPIIT on April 28, 2025, to study and analyse the emerging issues related to generative AI and its implications on Copyright law,” Prasada said.

He added that the committee has already finalised Part 1 of its working paper, which deals with the use of copyrighted content in AI training, and the same has been published for stakeholders’ feedback.

“The committee has finalised part 1 of the Working Paper on the issue of the use of copyrighted content in AI training. It has been published for stakeholders’ feedback,” the minister said.

Prasada further informed that issues relating to authorship and copyrightability of AI-generated works are currently under review and will be covered in Part 2 of the working paper.

Highlighting the mandate of the expert panel, the minister said its terms of reference (ToR) include identifying and analysing legal and policy issues arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in the context of copyright, examining the adequacy of existing provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957, and making recommendations based on the analysis.

“To identify and analyse the legal and policy issues arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in the context of copyright” and “to examine the adequacy of existing provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 in addressing these issues” are among the key tasks assigned to the committee, Prasada said.

He also confirmed that the government is engaging with major stakeholders as part of the review process.

“Yes,” the minister said, in response to a query on whether the law department has engaged or plans to engage with major stakeholders, including news organisations, publishers and representatives from the technology sector, to ensure that legal reforms strike a balance between innovation and effective copyright protection.